Rob Marshall leaving role as Red Bull chief engineering officer to join McLaren technical executive team; Marshall to be technical director for engineering and design; Marshall has been with Red Bull since 2006
Tuesday 30 May 2023 18:16, UK
McLaren have announced Red Bull's chief engineering officer Rob Marshall as their new technical director for engineering and design.
Marshall has been with Red Bull for 17 years but will leave immediately ahead of taking up his new role with McLaren on January 1.
Marshall's role sits within McLaren's new technical executive team which was created in March as the Woking-based team moved away from a single executive technical director.
He will work alongside Peter Prodromou, technical director for aerodynamics, and David Sanchez, who is joining McLaren from Ferrari in January as technical director for car concept and performance. All three will report directly to team principal Andrea Stella.
Marshall joined Red Bull in 2006 as chief designer and, along with Adrian Newey, helped create Red Bull's cars that won the drivers and constructors' championships from 2010-2013. He became chief engineering officer in 2016.
Announcing Marshall's appointment, McLaren team principal Stella said: "With over 25 years working in motorsport, Rob comes to us with a wealth of expertise and experience, elevated by his tenure and track record at Red Bull Racing.
"Rob's appointment is one of the fundamental steps and a natural fit to aid the team's journey to get back to our winning ways.
"We are a team with the ambition of fighting for championships, but over the last couple of seasons we have not shown a steady upward trend from an on-track competitiveness point of view.
"Over the last few months, we have worked towards inverting this trend. The approach we have adopted is comprehensive and is based on strengthening the team from a people and expertise point of view, along with the ongoing projects to upgrade technology and infrastructure that will shortly come to fruition.
"People and culture are our most important resource. We have recently invested and worked towards developing and empowering the internal talents available at McLaren, and we already perceive and measure the positive impact.
"In parallel, we have been strengthening our roster by bringing new talents on board. The list was already strong and encouraging, and the addition of a high-end and skilled individual like Rob will further consolidate our ability to establish the highest technical standards at McLaren and be in condition to design winning F1 cars."
Marshall will be supported by Neil Houldey in the newly created position of deputy technical director, engineering and design, to complete McLaren's senior technical structure.
McLaren are currently sixth in the 2023 constructors' championship and claimed their second double-points finish of the season at the Monaco GP.
The team are looking to get back to challenging at the front of the field having taken a step backwards under F1's new technical regulations last year and suffering a difficult start to the 2023 season after missing their development targets over the winter.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said of Marshall's departure: "We would like to thank Rob for everything he has done for the team over the past 17 years.
"His work on the generation of cars that gave us four incredible championship doubles between 2010 and 2013 was truly outstanding.
"In the years since he has continued to be a key figure at the team and in 2016 took on the broader role of chief engineering officer which has seen him involved in other projects across the business.
"His influence will be missed but once again we thank him for all he has done and wish him the very best in his new role."
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